


Mum

by Tuuna



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Drabble, Dysfunctional Family, Motherhood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-10 20:26:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12307101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tuuna/pseuds/Tuuna
Summary: Drabble. "The times her siblings called her mum were bittersweet"





	Mum

Lip never calls her mum. She's kinda grateful.

The only time Ian calls her mum he's three (she's nine) and confused because she's the one who's been taking care of him for the most part of his life and his real mum isn't around and kids are curious. She just tells him no.

Debbie slips a couple of times over the years. Mostly when Fiona is tucking her in at night. A softly mumbled "Thanks mum". Those are the night she curls up in her bed and sobs for the parents they never had, quietly so that her siblings can't hear.

Carl is ten and they are arguing. He's mad she's taking away his knives again, and tells her that just cause she's his mum she can't take away his stuff. The room goes real quiet after that and his cheeks burn red. Her heart squeezes, and hurt so so badly. She doesn't know what to say so she just pulls him to her and hugs him tightly. They don't speak of it again.

Liam's first word is mum. He's looking up at her with a huge grin on his face, so proud. The rest of the family subtly quiets down and waits on her reaction. She smiles back at him and says: "Yes".

The last time Fiona called her mother mum she was five. Then her mother disappeared and she became the surrogate parent for her brother and later on the rest of her family. She was present at the birth of all her siblings, waiting for the next baby that would be her responsibility. She took care of them, fed them, talked to them, hugged them when they were feeling down, hid her own struggles over the years - cause that's what a good parent does. Fiona sacrificed her childhood so that they could have theirs with someone at their side. She never regretted it.

**Author's Note:**

> Though Fiona kind of goes off the rails towards later seasons I truly think her relationship to her siblings are remarkable. I get why the TV plot went the way it did, but I feel like in some alternate reality things worked out. This is a tribute to her efforts to keep her family going and to the unique challenge of being the oldest sibling and pseudo-parent.


End file.
